Solar
An art to heating I
International fashion and textile artists Charles and Patricia Lester created their own ‘palace by the sea’, out of an old clubhouse incorporating renewable technologies including a Kensa ground source heat pump, solar thermal, solar PV and passive solar generated hot air circulation from conservatories and rainwater harvesting
n the late 1990s the Lesters bought an eight-acre plot, part of a nine-hole golf course, near the picturesque coastal village of Llansteffan in rural Carmarthenshire. Described as an “architecturally disadvantaged” building, the Lesters wanted to turn the former unfinished concrete shell of a clubhouse building into a “palace by the sea” – but on a shoestring.
Neither had done anything like this
before, but being designers they saw the old clubhouse shell as a blank canvas, which they have nurtured into a landmark project that is bold yet works in harmony with its surroundings thanks to the application of several renewable technologies, including a Kensa heat pump.
Having decided they wanted to redesign the house themselves they received support from a planning officer who guided the couple and also made some suggestions. The Lesters worked on their dream home for over 10 years with a very limited budget, a small team of builders, using reclaimed materials wherever possible. The home they created they named ‘Gwylfan-y-Glaerwen’ (meaning ‘Watching Place of Bright Shining Water’). As well as being visually impressive, the house has also been designed to be as energy efficient as possible. Charles was originally a physicist specialising in ultrasonics in relation to textiles. He designed his first solar heating system whilst in his teens 55 years ago. An innovator and inventor, he understands the benefits of renewable heating technologies and how they work scientifically. With the property being in a rural location with plenty of land, he was keen to use a ground source heat pump to cater for the property’s space heating requirement. In addition to this, Charles has also installed solar thermal panels, solar PV, and passive solar, which pumps hot air from the conservatories into the house in winter. He designed and installed a rainwater harvesting system. All this with the geothermal technology, makes the house nearly energy independent. All the systems were designed to produce the maximum output
May 2017
Left and above: Before and after artists Charles and Patricia Lester refurbished an ‘architecturally disadvantaged’ clubhouse into ‘a palace by the sea’
Left: The building’s solar thermal panels
heat stored in the ground via the straight pipe and two boreholes; this design ensures a warmer return temperature to the ground source heat pump and superior performance, equating to very low heating bills and high returns through the RHI. The combination of boreholes and
possible at the equinoxes. Excess heat in the summer is stored. Kensa specified a 16kW Twin Compact
ground source heat pump for the project. Although capable of heating the whole house, the heat pump will rarely be needed to do so, as with support from Kensa, Charles cleverly integrated it with his solar technologies, effectively creating a ‘heat battery’ system that charges the ground with solar energy. He does this by procuring as much heat energy from the solar thermal as possible, which is initially used alongside the solar PV to fulfil his domestic hot water requirement. Any leftover heat is then discharged into the ground via 400m of pipe laid underneath their wildflower meadow. The ground source heat pump then delivers space heating when needed by absorbing the
straight pipe as a ground array is unusual, but in the case of the Lesters, it provided the optimum performance; the use of the ground as a ‘heat battery’ demanded a system design that would ensure all of the discharged heat into the ground was utilised to benefit the ground source heat pumps performance, so by using boreholes, which were drilled to depths of 880m, the borehole pipework along with the straight pipework in shallow trenches absorb all possible heat for the ground source heat pump to function super- efficiently.
Kensa's resident physicist and general manager, Dr Matthew Trewhella
Charles is passionate about renewable technologies and understands how to get the best efficiencies from the system he has designed. When the Lesters bought the plot, the clubhouse building was effectively a concrete block with no insulation. Charles upgraded this to the highest possible specification, filling wall cavities with foam and Celcon blocks as the inner wall; covering walls with plasterboard backed with 25mm Celotex and foil. He also added several air spaces between the
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